Keith Downing

Keith Downing
Personal information
Full nameKeith Gordon Downing
Date of birth23 July 1965
Place of birthOldbury, West Midlands, England
Height1.73 m (5 ft 8 in)
Playing positionMidfielder
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps†(Gls)†
1983–1984Mile Oak Rovers
1984–1987Notts County23(1)
1987–1993Wolverhampton Wanderers191(8)
1993–1994Birmingham City1(0)
1994–1995Stoke City16(0)
1995Cardiff City4(0)
1995–1999Hereford United59(1)
Teams managed
2007–2008Cheltenham Town
2013–2014West Bromwich Albion (caretaker)
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.
† Appearances (Goals).

Keith Gordon Downing (born 23 July 1965 in Oldbury, West Midlands) is an English former footballer. He made the vast majority of his appearances for Wolverhampton Wanderers, where he was nicknamed "Psycho" for his robust style playing in central midfield.

Playing career

Downing was a junior player at Chelsea, leaving the club at the end of the 1982-83 season. He progressed as far as the Reserve team playing alongside the likes of Paul Canoville and Micky Droy, but never made the breakthrough into the first team.

Downing began his professional career in 1984 at Notts County, after a spell at Mile Oak Rovers, before moving to Wolves in 1987. At Wolves he played over 200 league and cup games, scoring 11 goals in total, and helping the team to two successive promotions in the late 1980s.

In 1993 Downing moved to Birmingham City, but managed only one league game, before leaving for Stoke City and later Cardiff City. He ended his playing career at Hereford United, becoming player-coach in 1998 and subsequently returned to Wolves as a youth team coach.

Management career

He joined Cheltenham Town as assistant manager in the summer of 2004, working alongside manager John Ward, who he had met through his time at Wolves where Ward had been assistant manager. When Ward left the club to join Carlisle United in October 2007, Downing stepped in as caretaker manager, before being given the position on a full-time basis on 2 November 2007. He left the club by mutual consent on 13 September 2008.[1]

In February 2009, he was appointed assistant manager at League Two Port Vale.[2] This was a temporary appointment to help manager Dean Glover, both men left the club on 2 May 2009.[3]

In July 2009, Downing was appointed the academy coach at West Bromwich Albion.[4]

Downing served as joint-assistant head coach at West Bromwich Albion under Steve Clarke and in December 2013 temporarily took over first team duties after Clarke was sacked.[5]

Personal life

Downing married in 1993, and has two sons from that marriage, James and Thomas. He has also spent time in a punk rock band. He has an interest in criminology and history, specifically the history of World War II.[6]

Statistics

Managerial statistics

As of 11 January 2014[7]
Team Nat From To Record[8]
GWLDWin %[9]
Cheltenham Town England 26 September 2007 5 November 2008 5014122428.00
West Bromwich Albion England 14 December 2013 9 January 2014 612316.67

References

  1. ↑ "Manager Downing leaves Cheltenham". BBC SPORT. 13 September 2008. Retrieved 27 February 2009.
  2. ↑ "Downing will replace Brightwell". BBC SPORT. 27 February 2009. Retrieved 27 February 2009.
  3. ↑ "Downing expecting to leave Vale". BBC Sport. 3 May 2009. Retrieved 3 May 2009.
  4. ↑ "Downing handed Baggies youth role". BBC SPORT. 10 July 2009. Retrieved 11 July 2009.
  5. ↑ "Steve Clarke sacked as West Brom head coach". BBC Sport. 14 December 2013. Retrieved 17 December 2013.
  6. ↑ "Keith Downing profile". BBC Stoke & Staffordshire. April 2009. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
  7. ↑ "Keith Downing's managerial career". Soccerbase. Retrieved 17 April 2009.
  8. ↑ Includes all Premier League, Football League, FA Cup, League Cup and Football League Trophy games.
  9. ↑ Winning percentage is correct to two decimal places.

External links